Tang purchased the bar from a Royal Bank of Canada branch across the street from his shop and tested it for purity. He found that the bar was a complete fake. He took the bar back to the RBC branch and asked for a refund. The branch has admitted that the bar was not purchased from the Royal Canadian Mint and is now in the process of investigating the origins of the fake bar.

Read the Royal Canadian Mint’s statement on the fake bar:

STATEMENT BY THE ROYAL CANADIAN MINT

OTTAWA, ONTARIO – October 31, 2017 – Recent news reports of a counterfeit 1oz. Mint-branded gold bar sold at an RBC branch have raised unfounded speculation as to the origins of the counterfeit and the purity or Royal Canadian Mint bullion products. The Mint is therefore issuing this statement to clarify the facts surrounding this matter, specifically:

– The Mint did not manufacture, ship or sell the above-mentioned product.
– RBC has confirmed that the bar it sold to its customer did not come from the Royal Canadian Mint and it continues to investigate the matter with our support.
– Counterfeiting of Royal Canadian Mint bullion products is extremely rare and this is an isolated case.
– We take any suspicion of counterfeit seriously and work with law enforcement to support their investigations.
– Without exception, we test all of the product leaving the Mint to ensure that all gold bullion products (coins, wafers and bars) we produce and sell are at least 99.99% pure.

Customers can remain confident in the purity of Mint bullion products, which is governed by rigorous production standards reinforced by strict protocols applied at every level of refinery and minting operations. In addition, our world-class assay (or gold testing) laboratory certifies that all gold bullion delivered to customers meets its stated purity (99.99% or 99.999%). All wafers are weighed and assayed before being shipped.

Because of their purity and security, Royal Canadian Mint bullion products stand for excellence worldwide and lead the global bullion market. We vigorously protect the reputation of our brand by adding advanced anti-counterfeiting features to our bullion products, such as Bullion DNA technology and micro-engraved security marks, which offer buyers of Royal Canadian Mint bullion the highest level of security in the industry.
For more information on our bullion products, visit www.mint.ca/bullion.